5 Reasons and 10 Tips for Improving Your Communication Skills

I cannot teach you to write well in one short-ish article.  What I can do, I believe, is help you to understand why you should care about communication in written and spoken forms and why doing so will help you succeed.  I also can give you a few pointers that have helped me over the years as a document writer, business analyst, and speaker.  Here we go.

5 Reasons You Want to Communicate Well (Not an exhaustive list)

      No matter what you seek to do in this life, you will want to be heard.  Whether you are a team player or a lone-wolf, you will need to communicate with other people.  You will need to be able to tell them your intentions, your goals, your needs, and probably some complicated concepts.  If you cannot do so quickly and efficiently, you are likely to experience a great deal of frustration on your part and maybe even some negativity on the part of others, as they become frustrated.  Being able to express yourself well can give everyone a favorable opinion of you and help others know who you are and what you are trying to accomplish.

      Expert communicators are valuable at work and in other organizations.  Do you want to be more in demand at your workplace?  Do you want to be a go-to person in your organization?  Being able to speak and write well will take you a long way towards being the “it” person.  Why?  Because you can articulate your own thoughts and help clarify those of others.  Because you can get a point across.  Because you can help people understand where the organization is going and why.

      Being able to write and speak well can help you unleash your creativity.  As you are able to put your thoughts, dreams, and even wacky ideas out into the world, you will be able to unlock the part of your brain that can break through barriers and find new and exciting ideas and approaches to every day challenges.  Creativity is a highly sought skill and one that needs exercising.  Speaking and writing creatively will help.

     Writing and speaking well exercises your brain and helps with developing critical thinking skills.  As you practice your writing and speaking, you will be examining what you are doing, honing your skills, learning to be more efficient and effective.  You will begin to consider and dissect the information in front of you, how it’s organized, and use it to formulate effective communication about the topic at hand and your thoughts that follow.  This process will become second nature, over time, and begin to extend to other people’s communications with you so that you be able to more fully understand what is being communicated to you.

      Being able to speak and write effectively requires mental organization.  As you practice these skills, you will establish organizational patterns that will extend to your everyday life.  Deliberate and conscious efforts in the early days of your efforts will become well-traveled courses of thought in the future.  You will be better able to collect your thoughts, arrange them, and then communicate them effectively and efficiently.

5 Tips for Improving Your Writing Skills (Nope, not exhaustive)

The single most valuable thing you can do in order to learn to write well is to read.  If you become familiar with the sound and flow of well written communications, you will start to internalize them.  Once you know how well written information “sounds”, you can begin to examine your own writing and critique it against what you know to be good.  Your reading should include fiction, non-fiction, scholarly, journalistic, and narrative styles.  Read everything.  Not every writing type requires the same rigor for syntax, structure, and style.  Become familiar with all of these so that you may easily switch from one form to another as your audience and context change.  A social media post detailing your vacation should not be written in the style of a scholarly article nor should your business document necessarily mirror a style appropriate for fictional literature.  When you know the different tone and the styles of writing, you can start to fit your communications appropriately.

         Be succinct.  Long, rambling sentences and paragraphs are generally confusing and inefficient ways to get your point across.  Learn when it’s a good time to use a list instead of the standard paragraph. People can more easily consume small bites of information.  It is much more difficult to parse and understand a multi-line, multi-segmented sentence.  When writing, you may need to ramble to get your thoughts onto paper, but never fail to come back and edit for conciseness.

      Speaking of which, learn to edit yourself.  Learn to cut out the superfluous and focus upon what is critical in order to get the reader to understand your message.

      Decide why you’re choosing to write and keep laser focus on that purpose.  Are you communicating an experience?  Are you trying to persuade someone?  Are you giving directions?  Keeping singular focus upon what you are doing keeps your writing in line.

      Ask for criticism from good writers.  No matter how well we edit ourselves, we will miss things.  Our own writing lives in our minds and we know what we are trying to say.  Other people don’t have that luxury and can help you see things that your brain just glosses over.  Be sure to establish a safe and respectful relationship with your editor.  It is of no use to either of you if feelings are hurt.  Tell your editor what you are looking for and be ready to hear that you made some mistakes.

5 Tips to Improve Your Speaking Skills (Again, not exhaustive)

      Slow down.  Allow yourself time to organize your thoughts.  Ask yourself if it is necessary to say what you are about to say.  Take time to consider the right words to use.  Constructing your message well will help you get your meaning communicated.  Remember to focus on your point.  Slowing down will help you keep that focus in mind.  When you speed through your communication, you risk losing focus and obscuring the intent. You risk being a blatherer.

       Be self-aware and watch your facial expressions and body language.  If your mouth is saying one thing but your body and face are saying something else, you are diluting or confusing your message.  Keep in mind that a large part of communication is expression and posture.  Study body language to help you be aware of what you are portraying while speaking.  Remember that facial expression affects the sound of your voice.  Even if someone can’t see you, they can tell if you’re smiling.  The same principle applies to other expressions.

      Read and write.  For much the same reasons as listed above, reading will improve your speaking skills.  Reading about great orators and examining their speeches will help you to understand what makes great communication and how you can use the same tools and techniques to communicate well yourself.

      Listen to people.  By listening to others, you will begin to understand what makes effective communication and what doesn’t.  As you listen, ask yourself whether this is good communication or not.  Ask yourself why it is or is not.  Think about your own speech and compare and contrast with the subject to which you are listening.  If you tend not to be a listener, challenge yourself to become one so that you can be more aware of other people’s speech patterns and capabilities.  Doing so will also help you become more introspective with regard to your own speaking.  Additionally, don’t avoid listening to yourself.  Record yourself and listen with a critical ear.  No one likes to hear themselves, but put aside the angst over your nasal voice and accent.  Focus upon what you are saying, are you organizing your thoughts well?  Are you focusing on the point of your communication? 

      Speak.  If you don’t practice a skill, like speaking, you will not improve.  Challenge yourself to speak up, especially if you don’t usually do so.  Look for simple ways to improve casual conversation as well as opportunities to speak in front of other people.  You need not be in front of a crowd to speak well.  You can practice speaking well every time you verbally communicate with one or more people.

In Conclusion

There are many similarities between speaking and writing.  Improving one will positively affect the other.  It’s really nice when you can use synergy to make changes.  Speaking of synergy, as you improve your spoken and written communication skills, something else will happen.  You will gain confidence.  When you KNOW you can make yourself heard and understood, you can feel more confident when presenting yourself anywhere.  Whether a job interview, a lesson in your local church, mosque, or temple, or a presentation at work, when you know in your bones you can get your point across, you can easily nail your purpose.

There are of course more ways to improve your communication skills.  If you really want to improve, use Google and look for resources and information on how to practice and proceed.  The world is at your fingertips and you can access that information for free.

Who am I to tell you how to improve your communication skills?  I am a technology professional who has been writing and speaking as a part of that job for over 30 years.  I have been a technical support specialist helping people troubleshoot issues with large multi-media systems.  I have been a department manager with up to 14 people reporting to me.  I have been a business analyst working with teams both co-located and globally dispersed.   I am a seasoned documentation writer, working with teams producing several different products for external sales and many, many applications internal to my various employers.  I am a public speaker with engagements at BA World and local organizations under my belt.  I am a member of the Yelp Elite Squad with over 800 reviews.  Finally, I am a confident writer and speaker who wants to share with the world.

Thanks for your time.  I would love to hear what you think of this and my other articles.  Cheers.

Trust for Teams and Practical Steps to Build It

Trust: (noun) Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something; dependence on something future or contingent; something committed or entrusted to one to be used or cared for in the interest of another; (verb) Believe in the reliability, veracity, ability or strength of someone or something

These definitions resonate with me, all of them.  In my humble opinion, trust is the most important element of a successful business enterprise.  Unfortunately, it is also one of the hardest elements to find and get right (Meinert, 2016) (Becker, 2018).  In this article, I will make the case for building and maintaining trust in the workplace and then offer practical steps to create trust, nurture it, and help it grow.

Why is trust important for the workplace?

Does it seem odd to you that I would even ask that question?  If so, then please stick with me.  I hope to convince you that it’s critical.  If you read that question and thought “There are hundreds of reasons.” Good for you!!!  You are with me on this and can help convince the skeptics and cynics among us.

Human beings are social creatures.  We developed to be social animals from the very start of our evolution.  We find evidence of society in the remains left behind by the earliest humans and even some of our non-Homo sapiens relatives.  The development of societal bonds has been one of the major success factors for our species.  It has allowed for shared labor, safety nets for those who fall ill or have difficulties, and enough food for a larger group than was possible in individual family units.

Society uses trust as one of its most basic and critical elements even though its importance is generally unrecognized until trust starts to break down (Karen S. Cook, Editor, 2001).  Social stability is threatened by a lack of trust, whether that social unit is a work group, a team, or a community.  If members of a group cannot trust one another, then the ability to work together effectively is compromised.  (Institute, n.d.)

So, that’s all very nice, now what?

Now we start building.  Building trust is something that you should think about every day.  Building trust is part and parcel with being an ethical and responsible person but if you are not deliberate about it at the outset of trust building exercises, it can be easy to forget and accidentally break trust.  Breaking trust is a huge hurdle to have to overcome, so it is best to not do it.  Being deliberate in trust building efforts helps ensure you never have to say you’re sorry.

Ways to build trust as an individual

First, take your group to an offsite location.  Then, set up some pillows in case someone gets dropped….  No, trust falls are not necessary or even advisable.  There are many ways you can demonstrate and build trust in a real world environment.  Here are a few and some explanation for each.

1.       Lead by example: When you show someone that you have confidence in them and know they can handle a situation, then they are predisposed to respond in like ways toward you and others.  Micromanagement of others is a sure-fire trust breaker.  By hovering over others and questioning their every action and decision, you are signaling that you have no trust in them or their capabilities.  This does not mean that you should never have follow-ups with your team members. What it means is that you should give people the space to do their thing and then follow up to see their progress, give encouragement and guidance and then trust them to move on. 

2.       Show respect:  When you are working with a group of people, give everyone respect at the outset.  Showing respect is about the little things that demonstrate you value a person or a group of people.  You can do this by doing the following:

a.       Be consistently on time for meetings

b.      Refrain from talking over people, no matter how excited you are

c.       Speak with people in a respectful tone of voice and with respectful language

d.      Look people in the eye when talking and look at them when listening

e.      Give all speakers your undivided attention

3.       Follow through: If you say you will do something, do it.  Making promises to another person is an assurance that they can put their trust in you.  Failure to follow through means you are untrustworthy, period.  If something comes up and you are unable to meet your commitment to someone, let them know as soon as you realize it.  Even if you disappoint them by breaking a promise, you at least let them know that you respect them by warning them of your inability to follow through. 

4.       Communicate openly: When you communicate openly you foster an environment of transparency.  Incomplete communication implies a lack of trust on your part and then makes people trust you less.  If there are things that cannot be communicated to a certain audience for a good reason, establish a protocol for communications security and widely publicize it.  Be sure to include the reasons for needing communication security and make sure everyone understands it. Then, when something isn’t communicated, make sure it is because of your rules and always stick to your rules.

5.       Put the interests of the team ahead of your self-interests:  Often the good of the team is in our own best interest too.  That makes this trust building method a piece of cake.  Sometimes, however a situation arises that makes it superficially more rewarding to take your own interests to heart.  Unfortunately, when you let yourself fall victim to that thinking, you are telling your team members that they don’t matter, the goal doesn’t matter, and you do not respect or value them.  You may or may not agree with what the team is working on and it may seem to be less agreeable for you, that’s OK to say.  You should state your reservations and then let the topic go.  Support the team and their work anyway.  If you do this, you are saying you value the team and the goal.  By voicing your disagreement but accepting the consensus, you are showing others that you value their knowledge and opinion.  If things don’t work out, be sure not to fall into the “I told you so.” trap.  The team knows what you said.  Lastly, be aware of your intent when you are interacting with a group of people.  This exercise in self-awareness helps you examine your motives and helps you maintain your own ethics along with building trust between yourself and others.

6.       Listen: Listening to the people around you is one of the most important ways to build trust.  When you listen to someone, you are showing them that you value them and what they have to say.  When you listen, listen attentively and actively.  Do your level best to eliminate distractions.  Put away your electronic devices.  Make eye contact.  Use active listening skills such as observing body language, smile while listening, and lean in toward the speaker.  Ask questions to probe the person’s thoughts and gain a deeper understanding of the message they are giving.  If you want more information on active listening, there are many different resources available.  Google is your friend and will give you more information than you can absorb.

7.       Be open to feedback:  We are not all perfect and everyone has room for improvement.  When you are given constructive feedback, be genuinely grateful.  When someone has taken the time and has the consideration for you to give feedback, they are telling you that they value you.  When you show gratitude for feedback, discuss it, and work on changing as a result of it, you are signaling your respect and value for the person who gave the feedback as well as showing self-awareness and respect because you want to become a better individual and team member.  When someone gives you feedback, even if you don’t agree with it acknowledge the spirit in which it is given.  Remember that a person’s perceptions may differ from yours and take the opportunity to be introspective.  The person giving feedback may have misread you, the situation, or the signals in the environment, however their feedback is still valid and allows you and the person giving feedback to grow and build trust.  Never be afraid to discuss feedback with an open mind.

8.       Recognize each team member as an individual:  When you demonstrate that you value each person as they are and their individual ability to contribute to the team, you are showing respect and accepting that your way isn’t the only “right” way of doing things.  We are generally not able to pick out who will be our team members, let alone select the team to which we are assigned. We have to build relationships with total strangers and work in a coordinated effort toward a common goal.  Recognizing that we are not going to like the same things, behave the save way, think the same way, or react the same way to a given situation is a huge step toward being an effective team member.  Demonstrating your acceptance of diversity and the fact that you appreciate other perspectives and ideas builds trust in ways that saying you support diversity cannot.  Remember, actions speak louder than words. 

9.       Help:  When someone needs some assistance, don’t hesitate to jump in and help.  If you see someone struggling, let them know you see it and offer help or just lend a hand without being asked.  It’s a simple human kindness that speaks volumes about how much you value someone.  In the end, you will be rewarded in kind many fold because of the seeds you planted when you helped someone out.

Ways to build trust in a group

Groups need strong leaders, so when we talk about building trust within a group, you must have at least one person within that group willing and able to be a leader.  Generally speaking, a team needs to have a person who can spearhead these efforts. 

1.       Deal with unhealthy conflict: In any relationship, you’re going to have conflict.  Failing to address unhealthy conflict within a group is a sure fire way to ruin trust.  As a team, you must be willing to look at the situation and deal with it openly.  Keeping things hidden and unsaid is a recipe for resentment.  A leader in the team must be able to compassionately bring conflict into the open and lead safe and sane discourse on the point of contention until consensus can be reached.  When a team has a leader that is unafraid to help resolve conflict, they know they can bring problems to them and get results.  That’s trust

2.       Link individual and team priorities to your organization’s strategies and goals: Context means a lot.  People like to feel as though they are a part of something bigger.  Aligning team and individual goals with those of the larger organization signals that the company wants to bring everyone in on success.

3.       Foster a supportive environment:  Teams that are supportive of each other at work and even outside work makes for an environment of trust.  When you know someone has your best interests at heart, it’s easier to trust.  When you take time and put energy into helping others within the team meet their needs and aspirations, you are showing each member on the team that they are important.

4.       Make sure everyone has their time in the spotlight:  Ensuring that each member of the team gets their moments of praise and recognition helps people understand what each team member brings to the team effort and rewards them for their work.  Be sure that the praise that is given, is sincere and genuinely heartfelt.  People can tell when someone is giving empty praise, so don’t do it.

5.       Leaders take the heat for the team:  Every team has its times of trouble.  When something unfortunate happens, leaders who protect their team from the ire and tribulation surrounding it make huge strides in building trust with that team.  If a leader is willing to be the center of negative attention in order to allow their team to regroup and move ahead, that leader is demonstrating that they put the welfare of the team ahead of their own.  That’s trust gold.

6.       Keep team members accountable for their actions and outcomes:  Every single team member must be equally accountable to the team to carry their weight on that team.  Holding each other accountable and answerable is the best way to keep people together and performing at their peak.  It also helps head off resentment or feelings of favoritism.

7.       Invest time in teaching teams how to discuss, debate, and decide: When an organization takes the extra cost and effort to give their teams the tools they need for success, it shows that the organization cares about the team and individuals.  When teams are trained together and asked to demonstrate their learning in real life, the team can build trust as they learn how to interact with each other.  Over time, this will build a high performing team that will be formidable in their ability to work together on tough topics.

8.       Build respect into your team charter: If you are working as a group without a charter, shame on you.  Charters give your team an agreed to standard of behavior which allows trust to blossom.  By including respectful communication and behavioral practices in that charter, you are telling the team that each team member is important, their contributions are important, and that the team is important.  Once you have a charter, enforce it evenly and with compassion.  Recognize violations and address them appropriately.  If a disruptive behavior starts out, address it directly with the violator in person and as soon as possible.  Some violations need to be addressed in public, some in private.  Those choices are sometimes hard to make.  Compassion for the violator feeds into your decision on when to talk.  Think about how you would feel if called out in public for something.  If you would be horribly embarrassed, you might want to have a private conversation.

9.       Play together: The old, trite team building games make people crazy.  Instead of doing trust falls and zip lines, do things that allow people to participate in their own terms.  Have a picnic or pot luck lunch.  Designate a time period on a regular basis to play board or card games.  Bring a putting green to the office and have a small contest.  Go to see a movie as a team. All of these things allow people to connect on a human level.  Getting to know a person as a human being, not just a role in the workplace helps to form bonds that allow trust to form.  It is easy to mistrust a person you don’t know so make sure your team members get to know one another.

Can I trust your motives for asking me to trust you?

When you ask others to give you their trust, you are asking a great deal.  Before you do it, be sure to really understand your motives.  Con artists ask people to trust them in order to take advantage of others.  Not that you would ever think of doing that, but because unscrupulous people do, members of our society have developed skepticism that is likely more robust than is healthy.

To diffuse skepticism, be transparent and honest as possible.  Explore your motives and share them with the people you are asking to trust you.  In a team situation, you will likely need to explain why a goal must be met or why an idea has great merit.  When you are honest with yourself before asking for that trust, you can be sure that your idea or goal benefits everyone and that you are asking people to do the right thing for themselves and your organization.  If you cannot honestly say that your idea or your goal is in the best interest of the organization, then you probably should not bring it up in public.  If you’re not sure, ask a close friend, co-worker, or team member that you trust to give you their opinion.  Introspection is a valuable skill and will serve you well at work and in the outside world.

Who am I?  Why should you trust me?

I’m Lisa Combest.  I have been working in software in some capacity since 1989.  I entered into continuous process improvement around 1992 and became interested in “requirements engineering” in 1996.  I’ve been a computer graphic artist, department manager, web developer, project manager, and business analyst.  All through my career, I have been interested in how teams work together and ways in which we can get high volumes of good work done while being happy to do it.  I’ve worked for small, established shops, startups, Fortune 50 companies, and in between.  Throughout my time, I have found that the people I work with and the relationships I make with them keep me showing up with a smile on my face day after day and help to drive my desire to do my best.

With that in mind, I’ve committed myself to helping others by sharing what I’ve learned in my career.  After almost 30 years in the software development business, it’s time that I gave back some of the wonderful knowledge others have passed along.  In that spirit, I offer you this article.  I hope it gives you some food for growth.

Bibliography

Becker, S. (2018, January). 8 Reasons Employees Don't Trust Their Boss or Company. Retrieved from Money and Career Cheat Sheet.

Institute, R. (n.d.). Building Trust; Building Community Resilience. Retrieved from Community and Regional Resilience Institute.

Karen S. Cook, Editor. (2001). Publications - Trust in Society. Retrieved from Russell Sage Foundation: https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Society-Russell-Sage-Foundation/dp/0871541815

Meinert, D. (2016, June). Why Employees Don't Trust Their Leaders. Retrieved from Society for Human Resrouce Management.

5 Means to Get Into the Domain

As Business Analysts, we are often asked to facilitate meetings on topic with which we are not necessarily experts.  That is an intimidating place to be in.  How on Earth do you elicit specific and meaningful content about a topic that you don’t necessarily know much about?  Here are some ideas.

Embrace being the “new guy”

Acknowledge to yourself that it’s perfectly O.K. that you don’t know much about the topic at hand.  It’s easier to get other people to forgive your being a novice than it is to get yourself to give that grace.  Get it over with as soon as possible and get beyond it.  You can’t know everything about everything.  My motto is never be afraid to ask the “dumb” question.  There is no such thing,

Acknowledge your lack of knowledge

When you go into a session and don’t have a great command of the topic, say so.  Let everyone know that you’re learning as you go.  This can go a long way toward building empathy for you and others who are on the learning curve.  Now, ask a lot of questions and don’t act smooth when you don’t know something.  Don’t be afraid to ask about things it seems like everyone knows.  I’m willing to bet that you’re not the only person in the room who doesn’t understand that acronym or specialty term.  Build a solid glossary of terms for yourself and others on the team.  Take lots of notes or be dead certain your memory is a steel trap.  Once you say you don’t know something, have the courtesy to take notes or repeat the information so that the audience knows you are making a conscious effort to learn.  Having notes that you can publish out to verify your understanding also helps those people who aren’t willing to speak out.  You become a hero for them. 

One piece of caution here.  Don’t be the person who asks the same question over and over.  No one likes that guy.  Don’t be that guy.

Find a domain mentor

There are undoubtedly people in your organization you can talk to when you need clarification on a particular point or who can explain the finer details of a concept or process.  Find this person or persons and make sure that you build a good relationship with them.  Not only are you building a knowledge base for yourself, you’re building credibility with folks who can help you do the same within your team.  Trust is important and this relationship can help you build a solid foundation.  Lastly, building trust in your team never hurts.  Ever.

Read, Read, Read

Although your company or client may have very particular ways of doing things, most jobs or services are well documented and have a wealth of general information out on the internet.  Get out there and find it.  Many employers offer books either in a library on premises or electronically.  Do not hesitate to use these.  A sincere effort to learn the general points will boost everyone’s trust that you care about the subject and the team.   

All of the above suggestions build into one important point for any B.A.  Members of the business analyst profession need to be resourceful.  This means that you take the initiative and find the answers instead of waiting for the answers to come to you.  A good or great analyst will find ways to get information when others will only find brick walls.  You will know who to go to and when to ask the questions everyone needs answered.  Nothing can stop a resourceful business analyst.

Have your BA skills and competencies solid

If you are unsteady on your feet in terms of business analysis skills, such as facilitating meetings, eliciting requirements, or process modeling, it will show.  Practice your analytical skills as frequently as possible and be as confident as possible when you are going into a domain where you know very little.  If you are a brand new analyst, this is a much more tall order than if you have been at the job more than 5 years.  If that is the case, work on your self-confidence first.  Believing in yourself projects to others more than you would expect.  Once you believe in yourself, it is easier to focus upon your skills.  When practicing your skills, find a safe place to do it.  Rehearse with a mentor or ask for feedback from your team after holding an analysis session.

Speaking Engagement, Accomplished!

I am very happy to say that I didn't forget everything I wanted to say and somehow avoided making a complete fool of myself. Hopefully, I was able to give some folks some food for thought and to spur the imagination of young Business Analysts and maybe even Project Managers.

I am attaching a link to my presentation.  If you expressed interest in it at the conference, this should help you remember what we talked about.  Please use Notes View to see some narrative that is included for each slide.

If you have any questions or comments, or just want to chat, feel free to reach out to me.  You may reach me at lisa.combest@insperity.com or you can comment here.

Thanks!


The Importance of Understanding End User Workflows

Upcoming speaking engagement in Washington

Hello all,

It has been a while, hasn't it?  I apologize.  I have been horribly distracted.  Now, however my attention is forced to be focused as my first professional speaking engagement is coming up.  Yay!  I'm very excited.   I hope to have a lot of fun, meet a bunch of people, and learn a heap of stuff.  When I go to these conferences, I always get a little shot in the arm from talking to people that I don't know and hearing that they are working to overcome the same obstacles and solve similar mysteries.  It really helps to know you're not the only one out there doing this work.

I will be at the BA World conference in Washington, D.C. June 19-22.  I will be speaking on the 20th.  If you're a BA and have not attended one of these, you really should.  They help you get some fresh ideas and perspectives. More than anything, they're a chance for you to think about the work and not the day to day grind.  That's a luxury some don't get at all and most of us don't get enough of.

To learn more, visit the site for the Washington conference and watch for upcoming conferences that you can join in with.

The Art of Taking A Compliment

How many of you are uncomfortable receiving public praise?  How do you generally respond when people thank you or give you praise?  Isn't it strange that the one thing humans desire greatly, to be valued, causes so much discomfort when it happens?

How did it become so?  When did we all get taught that getting a compliment isn't the best thing in the world and to be grateful for them?  I don't know about most people, but for me, I learned it when I learned that "Pride goeth before the fall."  Who thought that was a good idea?  I mean, excess pride is a bad idea.  I get that, but having reasonable pride in yourself and your work is a good thing, right?  As a female, I think that I have been given a little too much warning on having pride, especially in my work-life.  I have been taught that no one likes a person who speaks highly of themselves.  I have been taught by my managers in reviews that no one can attain the highest score for their work because you're really just doing your job, right?  It's all a lie.

When someone pays you a compliment on your work performance, they most likely really mean it.  You did something that they think deserves recognition.  To pass off their praise as not necessary or really not being earned, you're doing them an injustice, IMHO.  Instead of looking away and playing it down, look them in the eye and say "Thank you."  That's all you need to do.  You don't need to explain yourself or qualify your achievement.  Just roll with it.

If the compliment doesn't seem genuine, say "Thank you." anyway.  If someone continues to pay you insincere compliments, you should speak to them.  They're trying to butter you up for something or are hiding something about themselves by trying to distract you.  Talk to the person and see if you can figure out what's really going on.  Maybe you intimidate them, making them feel insecure.  Maybe they feel like if they praise you all the time, you'll like them.  There are as many reasons for insincere praise as there are for sincere.  Talking to people to help understand their motives can help you be a more in touch and emotionally savvy person and that is never a bad thing.

The Incredible Huge Shrinking World

http://www.natgeocreative.com/photography/620970

Photographer: JAMES L. STANFIELD/National Geographic Creative

This image is one of the images in the National Geographic Iconic collection.  It was in an issue published in the late 60's or early 70s, if I remember correctly.  This image made a huge impact on a small, south east Texas girl.  I remember looking at her and thinking how beautiful this girl was.  I loved her dark eyes and hair.  I loved her complexion, I loved her jewelry and her clothes.  I wondered what she was like and what her life was like.  I really wanted to meet her.  Sadly, I was a small girl in a small south east Texas town, and I had never met anyone from India and I was pretty much certain that I never would.  The world was so huge, distances between us were enormous, and I thought "Why on Earth would someone from a place as wondrous as India want to come to south east Texas?" 

Today, I still think of this girl.  I think of how amazing a turn this old planet has taken and how it has become so small.  I think of this girl and wonder if she has been one of the thousands of her fellow Indians who have come to the United States.  I wonder if I may have already met her, and never even known I did.  I live in such a small world now.  I have met and come to know people from all over the world, places that I never thought of as a small girl, let alone seen an image of a native of that country.  I have worked with folks from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, far east Asia, the Pacific Islands, Australia, South America.  I am amazed at how different the world is today from the one I lived in as that small girl.  I love that I live in a city that is incredibly multicultural.  Houston is home to hundreds of nationalities and we all seem to get along.  Sure, we have our problems, but they seem to be much smaller than our commonalities.  

As a business analyst in I.T., I am perfectly positioned to work with diverse people from a wide range of cultures.  It is one of the best parts of my job.  Diversity in the workplace has brought us an amazing range of talent, perspectives, and capabilities.  It has also brought challenges.  Each side of the multicultural equation has had to work hard to come to understand and value each other.  It has taken some time, but now, in my workplace especially, I think we have come to a wonderful balance.  We understand each other's cultures and perspectives, we have learned to celebrate our differences and love our commonalities.  

Working as a BA today, the challenges are more of a person to person nature, rather than a culture to culture.  We are all now working on an even footing.  This is an age of wonder for our society and our business cultures.  It invites us to use the best from all of us and learn how to live as a single community, working toward our common goals.  This is exciting to me.  This is wondrous to me.  In many ways, I am still that small girl in south east Texas.  

If You Want to Be a B.A., You’ve Gotta Love Data

I am frequently surprised when I meet Business Analysts who don’t have much knowledge about databases, why they’re structured in different ways for different purposes, or even how to write a select statement.  I think as analysts, we have to take some of the blame for this happening, but I also think that non-IT businesses who have an IT group often pigeon hole business analysts firmly in business and don’t foster in their BAs a need to understand data, database architecture, or any other data skills.  That’s a shame.

As Business Analysts, we work with the business teams to understand the business, the conceptual objects that are created by our business and the processes that affect them.  We also should understand how the data in the business is used today and have some ideas of how that data could be used to greater advantage in the future.  As we work on a project, we do discovery on what elements of information are needed to complete a business task.  We should understand how those information elements relate to each other and how they are comprised of various attributes.  Working through analysis on a human resources project will almost invariably ask you to create an object to represent a person.  How that person is related to an employer, other employees, benefits packages, payrolls, etc. is the stuff that data design is made for. 

Most IT shops have DBAs who will assist with the creation of tables, relationships, indexes, and all else that goes into creating the data infrastructure that supports a product.  As BAs, we are not likely to be asked to do that work ourselves.  I put it to you, however, that you must know the concepts behind data design and architecture so that you can work together with your DBA in a meaningful way.  You are going to understand the nuances of information interrelations.  You will have a good idea of what elements are most important, which data will be most frequently referenced, so you have valuable insights that will help the DBA do their jobs more effectively.  As a B.A., you can definitely add value in the data design phases of any project.

During discovery and data design, you will use data modelling.  Data modelling refers to the creation of a description of how a database is or will be structured and used.  Some common models are: Flat, hierarchical, relational, and object-relational.  These models allow you to quickly and efficiently convey to others how what objects are important in your business process and how they relate to each other.    Entity-relationship models are a very useful means to communicate those relationships.  You should also be aware that individual items of data have their own properties.  Is it a numeric field?  Is it a text field?  Is the value stored in this field always one of a predetermined set of answers?  If you don’t have a sound background in data modelling, there are many wonderful ways to learn about them, from taking a class in person to participating in a class online.  You can also find many, many websites on the topic as well as books. Please look at the end of this article for some links and suggestions.

Once you’ve conquered the art of working on the design of a database, you need to be able to work with the information.  You need to be able to recover it and manipulate it.  You need to be able to pull out pertinent information from several tables and combine the results.  For this, you need SQL.  As a BA, you need to at least be able to construct a select statement and give it criteria upon which to select and a way to sort the data.  Ultimately, it would be handy for you to know how to create a complex selection between several tables and store the results into a temporary table.  You should also understand how to update, add, and remove records.  These basic skills are relatively easy to do, once you know the ins and outs of data and relationships.  SQL script is relatively natural and easy to work with.  It just takes time and practice.  You also need a data base that you can completely muck up and not cause a problem.  If you can do that, you will be able to help your team test your software, set up specific scenarios for “what if” testing and create reports that will benefit your stakeholders.

Again, there are tons of resources out there that are free or moderately priced.  Go out and find a book about SQL. Don’t get paralyzed in choosing which “flavor” of SQL to use.  Your employer has probably chosen their database technology, go with it.  Or, you can use an open sourced database manager and learn from it.  SQL for Oracle is not drastically different from SQL for Microsoft or an open sourced system.  Making the effort to learn and being rewarded by the warm glow of learning will reinforce your effort.

You may have noticed that I haven’t even started a rant about understanding data flow within and between systems.  That’s a whole other article.  Be prepared.  Until then, happy modeling.

Resources

Coursera is a wonderful source of learning.  Courses are developed and delivered by major universities.  There is little to no charge to learn.  Visit www.coursera.org to learn more. 

EdEx is another free to low cost option for folks looking to learn about many different topics.  Visit www.edex.org and search for topics to get started.

SQLcourse.com offers an interactive SQL learning environment.  It’s pretty nifty in that you can actually interact with a SQL interpreter to do your practical work.  www.sqlcourse.com

Microsoft Virtual Academy has free on-demand courses for beginners to advanced folks.  They’re set up so that you can create lesson plans for yourself and they feed in to MS certification, if you want to go that far.  Here’s a link to the English SQL Server Courses: https://mva.microsoft.com/product-training/sql-server#!index=2&lang=1033

A great choice is the “For Dummies” series.  Do not discount these books for learning.  Amazon.com has almost every version you would want.   You can also get these books on Google Play.

The O’Reilly series of books (the ones with the interesting animals on the front) are consistently well written and very useful for different levels of users.  Amazon and Google Play are good sources.

Conflict, Growth, and Turning Pain into Growth

A co-worker of mine has a phrase up on his whiteboard.  “There is no growth without conflict.”  He loves that quote and works with the people in his influence to get them to embrace conflict as a healthy thing.  We’re not talking knock-down, drag-out fights, we are talking rational debate and maybe a bit of passion for the work.  My friend has embraced conflict, but so many of us spend time trying to avoid it in our work lives and in our private lives.  As a result, we may be restricting our own growth as employees and as human beings.

It is very natural to want to avoid “pain’.  Even non-physical conflict can result in painful feelings.  We get that twist in our gut, that headache, that tension in the back.  We all know those feelings, but we may have not put them to work for ourselves.  We may not have recognized those feelings as an invitation to be open and honest about why we are feeling those things and openly and honestly working through them internally or with the people with whom you are in conflict.  Because we gloss over those feelings, they can stay with us, festering and building up until you just can’t take it anymore and a really big painful event erupts to throw things completely off kilter.  You may have experienced this in your work-life, when you’ve flown off the handle after some seemingly small point of contention sends you over the edge.  We have all felt this happen in our personal lives, I’m sure as well.  Instead of avoiding that pain and paying dearly for its cathartic release, I suggest letting it trickle out as it comes up.  Speak your mind and communicate with compassion and honesty in every setting, even at work.

When you fail to express your disagreement during your work-life, you are generally giving in to someone, like your boss or a team member.  When you fail to rationally express your disagreement, you are hurting yourself, the team, and the company.  What if your idea really is better?  What if both your ideas stink, but there is a better one out there that you can find together?  You’ll never know, if you don’t express yourself.  Innovation definitely will not happen if you keep things to yourself.

In the business world when we are developing solutions to problems, whether they be in people or electronic processes, it’s very, very important to speak out if you don’t agree with things that are being accepted as true or if you disagree with a solution.  Even if you are on the business side and you’re disagreeing with a technical resource or a superior in your organization, your disagreement is important.  There is a reason you are feeling “pain”.  It may be that you see a fault in their logic.  It may be that you know how the people in the field work and the proposed solution will cause too much disruption and not enough value for the company to invest in it.  You may have a better idea, you may have a worse idea, but you will never know unless you bring it up.

Tension between the business and technology implementation teams is inevitable.  We’ve probably all seen instances where our business sponsors have asked for a warp capable starship level product but have given you the timeline for building a canoe.  (Hyperbole for fun and illustrative purposes).  That is frustrating and aggravating, if we are honest.  Maybe the timeline is there, but the budget for R&D isn’t.  Whatever the conflict, it is up to the technical team to speak out about it.  The business may not be aware of the complexities of what they’re asking for.  It’s just a warp drive starship.  It’s just a website.  They may not understand that the security behind the site and authorization model for the different roles is going to take a long time to work out and to program and test. You as a technical team member must make sure they understand the pain point.  If they do, then they can rationally think things through and perhaps change the budget, give you more time, or start scaling back on their initial expectations.  They may be fine with a canoe at the outset.  They may be fine with the reduced, minimal feature set to start out with.  You won’t know if you don’t tell them your pain and explain why you’re experiencing it.

As a business analyst, I have frequently come to development teams with the business’ requirements only to be told that can’t happen or that what the business is asking for is silly or not needed.  Talk about a pain.  As the representative of the business, it’s extremely important that I understand the pain points that are driving the technology request and the value that is behind those requests.  I need to understand what is essential and what is negotiable.  I need to be able to articulate that to the development team and work with them to relieve the pain they’re feeling so that we can come to an agreement on the solution, given the needs, resources, time, and technical architecture we must work within.  All that discussion, all that conflict will cause us to re-examine things, ask tough questions and generally come up with an innovative solution that will benefit everyone involved.  You won’t get that innovation if you don’t speak up for the business.  You won’t get that if you fail to speak up for the technical team.  Rational, open, and honest conflict will pay off.

Do you notice how I’m always using the words rational, open, and honest?  These three features define a healthy debate.  Being rational is essential.  The word, rational, is defined as “being based upon or in accordance with reason or logic”.  Rational conflict does not become personal.  It is not about you or them.  Rational conflict looks at the facts, the requirements, the environment and all the other factors that surround a project.  There may be some gut feelings involved from time to time, but in general, that conflict and gut feeling are based upon what is known and what the future state must be in order to realize value from the work you will be putting in. 

Open and honest debate means that you are open to other ideas and express your ideas in ways that allow for debate, allow for you to be wrong, and allow for the middle ground.  Being open means you put all your ideas, concerns, and solutions on the table.  It also means being vulnerable.  Learning cannot happen unless you open yourself to the idea that you may be wrong, the other guy may be right or there is a better solution somewhere in between.  You may take a hit on your personal pride, if your reasoning is flawed or you’re basing your argument on a fallacious assumption, but how can you find out if you’re wrong and grow as a result of learning if you don’t allow yourself to be open to that possibility?  Sure, it will sting for a while, but you will get over it.  Other people will forgive you for speaking your mind and being wrong, especially if you’re open to saying “Oh, I’m wrong.  I didn’t think about that.”  In fact, your “street cred” will likely go up as people gain respect for you.  You will also be reinforcing an environment where people can be open about their conflicts and therefore encouraging personal and team growth.  Honesty is crucial here as well.  As business analysts and as human beings, we should never play games to make a political or personal point.  Being honest about a disagreement allows that pain and conflict to come to light and be addressed.  Being dishonest and creating conflict is definitely a path to destruction but being dishonest to avoid conflict is also a short road to an even bigger conflict down the road.  If you know something is wrong, if you see a flaw in logic, even if the gut feel is wrong, you should express yourself openly, honestly and rationally so that everything can be worked out.  Innovation is going to happen in that working out of the conflict.  Growth will happen when you realize that you were both a little wrong and you find the way to make each of you all right.

I’d like to close with a personal story about learning to embrace change.  I have worked on projects where everything seems to be going fine.  You’re chugging along and suddenly, something fundamental to the project changes.  More often than not, the timeline contracts.  Sometimes resources are diverted to other, hotter projects.  Whatever the reason, things are suddenly up in the air.  I used to waste time griping and wailing about the change.  I’d be sullen and quiet about all my concerns about it. I would start to feel awful about my workplace and my fellow co-workers because I blamed them for the pain of the upheaval.  Sometimes I got to say I told you so, when things went wrong, but that was a hollow victory.  When I learned to speak up an say my piece and take my ego out of the equation, I found that I had a lot less pain, a lot more respect for myself and others and I really believe that I and my coworkers started to benefit from my speaking out.  Now, I still have to coach myself to speak up in some situations, but it is much easier now.  I know that my rational, open, honest feedback will serve a purpose and build value for me, my team and my company. 

I swiped the image at the start of this article from Tim Rettig's excellent post about what to do when a team is in conflict.  He gives excellent advice on how you can rationally come to a solution.  Read that one at http://timrettig.net/7-steps-to-take-when-there-is-conflict-in-the-team/

Three Critical Competencies

I was talking to my husband about work the other day and reflecting upon other similar conversations when I had an epiphany.  It was one of those "It's so obvious" moments.  Whenever there are deep and continuous problems with a workplace, a product, or a project, you can boil everything down to a deficit in one or more of these things:

1.    Communication

2.    Trust

3.    Leadership

Failing to have a good communication strategy for any effort is a fast track to tragedy.  In order for any group to effectively work toward any goal, they have to understand what that goal really is.  They need to know why that goal is valuable to their organization or to their customer and how they can individually contribute to attaining that goal.  More importantly, they need to know when a change comes along, what that change is, and why that change is valuable.   Furthermore, the leaders of any effort must be able to effectively communicate to their customers.  Without a clear establishment of expectations for delivery of a project or product, the client can create a fantasy of what they're getting and build upon it as the effort progresses.  Those unrealistic expectations are not likely to be communicated to the work team until the product is presented to the customer.  Then the fruits of your organization's labor are met with a luke-warm reception, if not open hostility due to your having missed the mark, as far as the client is concerned.  A constant flow of information between work teams, leadership, and customers is crucial.  If a group's leaders founder in their communications, they will be met with confusion, frustration, anger, and resentment from both sides.

Trust is a three way relationship.  Not only do team members need to have trust in their leadership, leadership must have trust in their team members.  Open and honest communication about an effort is instrumental in building trust.  The communication must flow freely within a work group, both up and down the leadership ladder.  If team members do not feel like their leaders want to hear honest assessments of the situation, a decision, or an issue, they will shut down communication.  Leaders will then find that they are the last ones to know about problems.  They will not have input from their best advisers on the project, the people who are doing the work.  The work team whose leader does not trust them will not get the full picture of what they're trying to accomplish.  The team may not even be given an understanding of the scope and interrelationships of efforts and so make fallacious assumptions about the work and further undermine both their trust of leadership and leadership's trust in them.  To carry trust even further, the customer must be able to trust that they are getting what they have asked for and what the team has promised to deliver.  Setting realistic expectations and communicating constantly about status and deliverables will keep trust alive between the customer and the supplier.

Leadership is a quality some believe comes from a title.  This could not be further from the truth.  Leadership is seldom given and is almost always developed organically.  Work teams will naturally start to look toward those individuals who express a clear vision of how things are.  They will respect and follow the person who they feel is giving them the opportunity to succeed by providing key information on what is to be done, the goals for doing work, any supporting information, and honest acknowledgement.   They will follow the person(s) making decisions they feel are well considered and take account of different perspectives.  If a work group's managers or other leaders dither rather than decide, the team will feel rudderless since they have no definite goal and no rationale for that goal. Output will suffer and a joint effort will experience thrashing as different factions start working to their own agenda which likely will be divergent.  A more insidious risk lies in the team starting to follow poisonous leaders who can and will crop up in work groups with a power vacuum.  There is always the possibility of a person within a group who will be critical of the project, the organization, and/or leadership and offer themselves as the person speaking the truth about the situation.  

You MAY be able to limp along with communication and leadership alone, but your team(s) will not be as engaged as they could be.  Trust is the glue that binds teams and keeps them working harmoniously together.  Trust breeds frank communication of issues or risks because the team members feel that they can say the hard and unpopular things without fear of retribution.  They feel valued and invested in the work being done.  They have some skin in the game.  That's why I believe that you really must have communication, leadership, and trust in any work effort in order to succeed together.

Agendas - Everybody Needs One

I did a PowerPoint presentation on this some while ago and thought I'd transfer it to blog format.  Everyone seems to "know" the value of agendas but still, we all get invited to and, worse yet, set up meetings without them.  I'm guilty.  I will admit it.  We are all busy and we all are crunched for time.  I put it to you that one reason for that is wasted time attending meetings with no direction or output expected.  If we had purpose for every meeting we attended, I'm willing to bet we would not feel so pressed for time.

Agenda: n. a list of items of business to be considered and discussed at a meeting; a list or program of things to be done or addressed.  Derived from the Latin agere, which means "to do".

Agendas are about getting something done.  Whether it's making decisions, informing others, or producing an actual product, the agenda establishes expectations of completion when all is said and done.  When was the last time that you felt like the bulk of time spent in a meeting was productive or walked out of a meeting feeling accomplished?  When was the last time the converse was true?  Did either instance of meetings have agendas? Did the poor meetings use and follow their agenda?  Having and using a good agenda can help assure success and give all attendees the sense that the meeting was time well spent.

Why do you, as a meeting organizer need an agenda?  Many folks feel like they don't need an agenda.  They may feel that it cramps creativity or doesn't suit the purpose of the meeting.  Can you think of a meeting that doesn't need an agenda?

I believe that having an agenda makes sure that everyone understands why they are there in that room and what they are expected to do.  It gives them a level foundation upon which all participants can build and do the work at hand.  It allows them to focus upon the expected output for the meeting and get things done.  People won't waste time wondering why they are there and should give enough freedom to let creativity flow.  Further more, it allows a team to know when they've accomplished what they needed to get done, because they know what that is.  If a meeting does not have an expressed outcome, it is impossible to know if you accomplished anything.  If you know what you have to do, it's even possible that you can finish early and get back some time in your work day.

Meetings without clarity of purpose cost employers big money, when you look at the cost of everyone's time.  If they produce nothing, it's time wasted and money wasted.  Meetings without a clarity of purpose reinforce the attitude that meetings are not real work.  This results in people arriving late, skipping the meeting entirely, or disengaging from the task at hand by fiddling with their cell phones, doodling, or daydreaming.  No one comes to work to waste time so workers in fruitless meetings become frustrated and disengaged further from the work.

Agendas set the stage for success in the short and long term.  You know you should never embark upon a project without a plan.  Treat each meeting as a mini-project and have your agenda (plan) ready. You will be surprised at how well people start regarding your meetings.  If you give people a clarity of purpose, they will place a value on them.  They will stop dreading them.  They will stay engaged during the meeting, feel like they are contributing and generally be more engaged in the project.

A good agenda sets the plan for success.  A bad one will leave people adrift and may result in the failure to accomplish the meetings goals.  Being realistic is critical to meeting success.  If you try to cram too much into a meeting, it will fail.  You must also be sure to include everyone that is required to do the work to be done.  If making decisions, you will need to have all of the decision makers there.  You will need to present all the information, options, or ideas for consideration.  You will need to make time to hear from all of those at the meeting.  If you don't need to hear from someone, don't invite them, or make them optional attendees.  In your agenda, establish roles and responsibilities for attendees, as needed.  Advise them of these roles and responsibilities well before hand, so that they can prepare.  If you fail to do so, your meeting will come to a screeching halt and you will have an upset team member on your hands.  Time box your meeting, assigning time for each segment of the work.  Doing so gives you a tool to move the meeting along.  Stick to your timings when appropriate, but recognize when the team needs to extend a segment and let them do it, but remind them of the impact.  Start and end your meeting on time, with allowances at the beginning and ending to allow people to arrive from other meetings and depart to their next one.

Because time is money, invite only those people directly participating in or affected by the outcome of the meeting.  This is especially important for working sessions and decision making meetings.  Give attendees as much time to prepare as possible.  They need to get their work and their thoughts in line to contribute.  Be sure to communicate roles and responsibilities early too.  That way your attendees are prepared to do what is expected of them.  Also, inform the participants of the format of the meeting and the ground rules, especially if you are asking them to be active within the meeting.  By making sure that everyone knows why they're there and how to prepare and participate, everyone will provide value that will get the work done.

Remember, agendas set the stage for success.  They help the work team focus on what is to be done and ensure that the task is completed at the end of the meeting.  They help people understand their roles and the reason they are invited and they provide a plan for the activities to take place.  In the end, they're the checklist that helps you, the facilitator, know that you've guided the team to success.